Coiled tubing is a technology that has been expanding its range of application since its introduction to the oil industry in the 1960's. Its ability to pass through completion tubulars and the wide array of tools and technologies that can be used in conjunction with it make it a very versatile technology.
Typical coiled tubing apparatus includes surface pumping facilities, a coiled tubing tool string mounted on a reel, a method to convey the coiled tubing into and out of the wellbore, such as an injector head or the like, and surface control apparatus at the wellhead. Coiled tubing has been utilized for performing well treatment and/or well intervention operations in existing wellbores such as, but not limited to, hydraulic fracturing, matrix acidizing, milling, perforating, coiled tubing drilling, and the like.
In spooled conveyance services such as coiled tubing, wireline, and slickline, downhole tools need to be transferred from the reel at atmospheric pressure to inside the wellbore at wellbore pressure, in a process referred to as coiled tubing deployment. This transfer may be accomplished using a long riser with the conveyance attached to the top of the long riser. In this method, the tools are either pulled into the bottom of this riser, or are assembled into it. The riser is then attached to the well, is pressure tested, then the tools are run into the well. In an embodiment, an ‘easier to run’ service is utilized to place the tools in the well, followed by a ‘harder to run’ service do the running in hole. In this embodiment, the downhole tools are provided with an additional part known as a deployment bar. This deployment bar is intended to provide a surface against which the blowout preventers (BOPs) can both grip and seal. In the case where the ‘harder to run’ service is coiled tubing, wireline or slickline may be used to pre-place the tools in the coiled tubing BOP. The deployment bar used will be selected to have a diameter substantially equal to the coiled tubing diameter. As part of the contingency plans, it must always be possible to close the master valves of the BOP. In order to do this while the downhole tools are hanging in the BOPs, and without opening the well to atmosphere (thereby creating a blowout), the deployment bar must be capable of being sheared by the shear ram in the BOP. Once this is done, the slip and pipe rams can be opened and the tool dropped into the well.
It remains desirable to provide improvements in oilfield surface equipment and/or downhole assemblies such as, but not limited to, methods and/or systems for deploying coiled tubing into wellbores such as improved deployment bars for coiled tubing deployment.